Jewels of Istanbul: Topkapi Palace and Grand Bazaar Private Tour - Shore Excursion

Your first visit will be the Topkapi Palace (Harem section included). The palace is a great walled complex hugging the shores of the Bosphorus and Golden Horn and it was once the residence of the Ottoman Sultans. Mehmet II built the palace-city, home for three centuries of Sultans, in the mid-1400s as a summer palace. Topkapi was enlarged by Suleiman the Magnificent into the Sultan's principal residence and with the successive Sultans grew into a great complex of buildings set in lovely gardens. A series of courtyards connect various buildings which now house an astonishing collection of Chinese porcelain, treasures, the Topkapi dagger and the celebrated Topkapi Diamond plus much more.

Your next and last visit is the exotic Grand Bazaar. Turkey's largest covered market with 4000 shops offering excellent shopping as beautiful tiles, copper and brassware, apparel made of leather, cotton and wool, meerschaum pipes and all sorts of other things.

Others

Topkapi Palace is closed on Tuesdays and it will be replaced with Hagia Sophia Museum.